"I love playing this game with my family. We even have this family guild. I just don't want others to target them because of me."
The moment Forsyx heard those words, he just stared at her face. He stopped caring whether she was lying or not.
He didn't care—it was just that 'love playing with family' kept echoing inside his mind.
An entire set of hidden memories started flashing through his mind.
The family guild. Even he was part of something like that in his past life.
The faces of a few people passed through his eyes, including the scene of them screaming at him, taunting him, and using him as their outlet.
Then came the stuff his oh-so-dear family members did. He just smiled and nodded to her.
Even with the chaos going through his mind, he maintained his composure.
It wasn't like he was hiding the pain. No, it was different from that.
It was more like walking past a garbage dump without letting it affect him in any way.
These memories were nothing but trash slowly decomposing inside his mind. It might take time, but he was sure eventually they would disappear.
Till that happened, they were just a smelly, rotten corner of his mind—nothing else.
He shook his head and nodded to Lucami. "Well, good for you, I guess."
Rodium also nodded. "Damn, you're lucky all your family members love this game. My parents, on the other hand, won't even go anywhere near the headset."
Lucami tilted her head. "Oh, why?"
Rodium sighed. "It's just… My mother heard from somewhere that those headsets damage brains, make people dumb. I guess she just wanted to avoid that."
Lucami started laughing. "Hahaha."
Forsyx just smiled. He then shook his head and said, "Well, I have to go now."
The others nodded their heads.
Just as he was about to turn, he stopped and then said with a wide smile on his face, "Let me give you guys a friendly warning. In the future, you'd better avoid Chimika Village."
He pointed at both of them. "Also, warn your families and friends about it."
Rodium raised his eyebrows. "Ah, but why?"
Forsyx just turned and said while walking away, "Well, I already said everything. Now it's up to you whether you believe it or not."
With that, Forsyx said, "Logged out."
In the next second, he disappeared from there, leaving both Rodium and Lucami confused.
They looked at each other and then shrugged their shoulders as they walked their own ways, lost in thought, thinking about everything they had done today.
…
Veyne opened his eyes inside his room.
He removed his headset and looked at the wall clock.
It was still 8 in the evening. So he'd been playing for around 22 to 23 hours.
He tried to get up but felt stiff.
Grrrrr.
At that moment, even his stomach started growling.
He rolled toward his phone, which was just a hand away, booked food from the canteen, and dropped the phone to the side.
After playing the game all day, he didn't want to see the screen that much.
It took some time for him to properly move his body. He got up from his bed and took a bath.
By the time he was done, he heard someone smashing his door while shouting, "Veyne… Veyne… Veyne!"
When he opened the door, he saw two of his dorm buddies: one from the same course as him and another standing beside him.
He raised his eyebrows and asked, "What's going on? Why are you shouting?"
The guy from his course said, "Dude, are you okay? We thought you passed out or something."
He pointed to the second guy. "Marky even knocked on your door in the morning."
Veyne tilted his head. "Marky?? Who?"
Both of them stared at him like they were seeing a ghost.
Veyne sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Sorry, guys, things are just too messy for me these days."
They looked at each other, then glanced at the almost-empty room behind him.
They just nodded. "Don't worry, man, it's not that big of a deal. You also barely even stay here for just a few days, at most."
Then the one from his course said, "I'm Alex. Same course as you, and this one beside me is Marky."
The second guy shook his head and said, "It's Markus."
Veyne looked at them once again, making a mental note: The one with short black hair and glasses, with a skinny, small build, was Markus.
Alex was about the same size as him, but with some extra muscle. He had this weird half-red, half-brown short hairstyle. That must be a new style; he hadn't seen anything like that yesterday.
He mumbled, "The skinny one is Markus, and the half-red guy is Alex."
Alex just froze there.
Markus couldn't control his laughter. "Haha! Half-red! Damn right—that's the most noticeable thing about this dumbass."
"You little—" Alex put Markus in a headlock, then looked back at him. "What do you think, Veyne? How do I look with this new hairstyle?"
Veyne said, "It's sort of different from the standard. Kinda cool, in a sense."
Markus stared at him wide-eyed. "You don't have to lie, Veyne."
Before they could continue, they heard a third voice from the living room. "What are you guys doing there? Let Veyne come, or else his food's going to get cold!"
Alex released the headlock and turned. "Oh yeah. Veyne, that third guy is Henry."
Veyne walked out and saw a black-haired, medium-built guy sitting on the sofa.
Henry was the same dude who helped him by lowering the volume of the television that night. Kind of weird; that moment stuck in his memory.
He nodded to Henry. "Good to see you."
Henry looked at the others and nodded back. "Yeah, same."
Veyne saw his food on the table. He sat on the sofa and started eating while the others filled in Henry.
From their talk, he also came to know that both Henry and Markus were business majors.
After some random conversation, Alex said, "Oh, by the way—your guild members and your girlfriend both came to class to find you."